balmofgilead

Yesterday I was thinking about how I have been explicitly told to judge people by their shoes, teeth, and nails.  Somehow I'd never examined that idea before, or doubted it, or questioned it. I don't think I like it, at least not as an absolute.  Sure, you can glean little bits of information about someone by looking at their shoes or their teeth or their nails, but judging seems wrong.

Though come to think of it, maybe the explicit part has been the specification of shoes and teeth and nails.  I'm not 100% sure that *judging* was made explicit.

I hate culture where shoes matter beyond the issue of how easy they are to walk in.

Mr. Rogers sat quietly for 15 full seconds. "Perhaps we think that we won't find another human being inside that person. Perhaps we think that there are some people in this world who I can't ever communicate with, and so I'll just give up before I try. And how sad it is to think that we would give up on any other creature who's just like us."